Four of Pentacles and Five of Pentacles

Holding tight, and being out in the cold anyway. The Five is two figures passing a lit stained-glass window in the snow. The tradition reads this run as the failure of hoarding as a strategy, and it is careful to read the hardship as real rather than deserved.

Associated with self-protection that produced the isolation it was meant to prevent.

Guarding a position and losing it regardless. Frequently read where the loss was structural and the grip made no difference.

The window in the Five is lit and the door is never tried. The pair is most useful as a prompt to ask what help exists that pride is refusing.